27/12/07

PM: Israel “very careful” about settlement expansion
Xinhua – China
Israel insists that the Har Homa expansion does not violate its commitment not to build in West Bank settlements because the neighborhood is located in East …
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/27/content_7319225.htm

Pilgrims flock to most peaceful Bethlehem in years
Reuters – USA
By Rebecca Harrison BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Thousands of pilgrims flocked to Bethlehem on Monday for a Christmas mass which Palestinian …
uk.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUKL24293843320071224

Gaza census renewed after Hamas agrees to use of data
Ha’aretz – Tel Aviv,Israel
In August, the PCBS began a comprehensive survey of populations, economic enterprises, homes and other buildings in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. …
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/938786.html

Olmert, Abbas to try to revive stalled peace talks
Reuters – USA
… the Palestinian territories divided between Abbas’s Western-backed government in the West Bank and a rival Hamas administration running Gaza. Israel is …

Palestine Today 122607
International Middle East Media Center – Beit Sahour,West Bank,Palestinian Territories
In pre-dawn invasions that targeted several parts of the West Bank the Israeli army kidnapped 13 Palestinians on Wednesday morning. Palestinian sources …
www.imemc.org/article/52105

13 Palestinians detained in Israeli operations across West Bank
Xinhua – China
26 (Xinhua) — Israeli army forces detained 13Palestinians during its operations across the West Bank which started Tuesday night, Palestinian security …
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/26/content_7317292.htm

Israeli defense minister wraps up visit to Egypt on disputed …
Xinhua – China
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Monday that Egypt was not doing enough in curbing arms smuggling by Palestinian militants into the Gaza Strip, …
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/27/content_7319271.htm

Most active West Bank militant group in security team for Middle …
WorldNetDaily – Grants Pass,OR,USA
WND reported that during an October visit to the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, US security coordinator for the Palestinian …
worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59390

Palestine: A Peace-killing Linkage, De-linkage
Center for Research on Globalization – Montreal,Quebec,Canada
The Israeli colonial war in the West Bank is much more detrimental to the Annapolis process and the prospect of creating a Palestinian state because it is …
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7682

Barakei: Gov’t favors blood over talks
Jerusalem Post – Israel
… to fan the flames of war in the region by starving the Palestinian people and bringing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the brink of explosion. …
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=119851
7212546&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

26/12/07

The Israeli negotiations: Judaization and Blood
Voltaire Network – Saint-Denis,France
… in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the shadow of a new round of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authority which is scheduled for today. …
www.voltairenet.org/article153901.html

‘Tis the Season for Charitable Giving: A Washington Report Compendium
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs – Washington,DC,USA
Rebuilds Palestinian homes demolished by Israel, sometimes several times, in Jerusalem, the West Bank and in Israel. The premier network for Palestinian …
www.wrmea.com/archives/December_2007/0712077.html

‘Fatah al-Islam at work in Gaza’
Jerusalem Post – Israel
Earlier this month, Fatah’s security forces prevented Hamas from celebrating its 20th anniversary in the West Bank. The move prompted Hamas leaders to call …
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517208309
&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Egypt: Livni should focus on peace talks
Jerusalem Post – Israel
… the weapons smuggling lowered the chances that pragmatic factions in Gaza and the West Bank would regain control. Earlier Tuesday, Israel Radio quoted a …
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=11985
17205431&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Christians celebrate Xmas around the world
NEWS.com.au – Australia
Others were planning to visit friends and relatives in the occupied West Bank, Israel or Jerusalem. Israel has imposed a total closure on Gaza since Hamas …
www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22970293-23109,00.html

Another Day, Another Death—Another Israeli Military Incursion Into …
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs – Washington,DC,USA
Considered for centuries the jewel of the West Bank, in former days it was a center of Palestinian commerce and tourism, with ancient soap factories, …
www.wrmea.com/archives/December_2007/0712016.html

25/12/07

Pilgrims to Bethlehem Are Heartened by Even Relative Calm
New York Times – United States
Israel gave special permission for about 500 members of Gaza’s small Christian community to travel to Israel and the West Bank to celebrate Christmas and …
www.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/world/m
iddleeast/25bethlehem.html?ref=world

Israeli-Palestinian Talks Resume Amid Discord Over Settlements
Bloomberg – USA
Palestinians want to make those same sections of the city the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. …
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601
087&sid=aAVqmjqSmUUg&refer=home

OPINION: Help, a cease fire! —Uri Avnery
Daily Times – Lahore,Pakistan
And not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the West Bank, too. The military leadership exploded in anger. This is the second time within a few days that an …
www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20
07%5C12%5C25%5Cstory_25-12-2007_pg3_5

Christians stream out of Gaza for Christmas
AFP –
“Today we are coordinating for more than 500 Christians in Gaza to go to Israel and the West Bank for the Christmas celebrations,” Israeli Colonel Meir …
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jlDdNmUlUdYxtOQcDv3g4RTNpPpQ

Clearing out the jails
Ha’aretz – Tel Aviv,Israel
Like the “evacuation-compensation” for Gaza Strip residents, in the West Bank as well, the Israeli taxpayer will have to pay the price when the day comes. …
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/937989.html

Israel Won’t Prosecute for Use of Cluster Bombs in Lebanon
New York Times – United States
Since July, Israel has released about 770 Palestinian prisoners in three batches to shore up Mr. Abbas and his government in the West Bank. …
www.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/world/
middleeast/25mideast.html?ref=world

Politicizing Gaza’s misery
Tehran Times – Iran
Some had little problem in disowning Palestinian democracy altogether. The United States government, Israel, the European Union, and various non- democratic …
www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=159936

Hamas: The 20-Year Struggle
Asharq Alawsat – London,UK
Up until 1994, all of Hamas’s military operations were restricted to Gaza and the West Bank and it had not executed any operations within Israel, …
aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=11246

Gaza Christians Observe Somber Christmas after Murder
Christian Post – USA
Christians – who were once well-respected and influential citizens in Gaza – are now hastily selling properties to resettle in the West Bank, …
www.christianpost.com/article/20071224/30631_Gaza_
Christians_Observe_Somber_Christmas_after_Murder.htm

Christians, too, suffer the evilness of the occupation
From Khalid Amayreh in Bethlehem
Christmas is a season of good will. However, for Israel and its notoriously mendacious propaganda machine, Christmas is also a hasbara opportunity for spreading lies and disseminating disinformation and half truths about Christians in the Holy Land. The usual seasonal dosage of lies includes such claims that Christians in the Holy Land suffer more from Muslim persecution than from the Israeli and apartheid, and that Christian emigration is not really attributed to Israel’s Nazi-like repression of the Palestinian people but rather to Palestinian “Muslim” intolerance and violence…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39542

Bethlehem Christmas Cancelled: The Wall Must Fall
Window Into Palestine
My best wishes to all who are celebrating Christmas and a Happy Eid. This morning I saw a news article on the internet entitled “Peace Reigns in Bethlehem.” This is how “peace” is so distorted to the world. As long as atrocities and crimes continue without resistance to them, and it does not affect Israel, then this is what is known as “peace,” an utterly meaningless word. With that, I add this video which is entitled “Bethlehem Christmas Cancelled: The Wall Must Fall.” ….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39541

Thousands throng Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem
Maan News
“This land belongs to God. It must not be for some a land of life and for others a land of occupation and a political prison.” That was the message of Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah at the Christmas mass, held in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Thousands of Palestinians, pilgrims and tourists throughout the world converged on Bethlehem’s manger square for a celebration that was at once a religious holiday, a show of strength for the newly resurgent Palestinian Authority, and a show of national unity in Palestine’s multi-religious society…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39540

Merry Christmas! Remember Beit Sahour!
STRUGGLE FOR PALESTINE
We, the people of Bayt Sahur, being an integral part of the Palestinian people and its Intifada, refuse to pay taxes to the occupiers of our land, considering such payment to be a symbol of slavery and oppression. We consider the occupation of one people by another to be a clear violation of all international laws and religions, and it is in violation of the most basic human rights and democratic principles. We strongly believe that every citizen has to pay taxes to his national government in order to enable it to perform its duties and obligations. No taxation without representation! With this leaflet from November 5, 1989, the people of Bayt Sahur (Beit Sahour) announced the beginning of a campaign of civil disobedience centered around the nonpayment of taxes to the Israeli government.
www.uruknet.de/?p=39538

Christmas Under Occupation
Mohammad, ? KABOBfest

To everybody celebrating Christmas today, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas from the Holy Land. As people celebrate the birth of Jesus and Bethlehem is mentioned in countless Nativity plays and sermons all over the world, too few will realize the suffering endured by this holiest of cities. Surrounded by the illegal Israeli settlements of Har Homa and Gilo, Bethlehem today lies captive to the abusive policies of the Israeli occupation. The main road linking Bethlehem to Jerusalem has been closed off to Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) for several years now, reserved exclusively for the use of Israelis. The settlements and the Apartheid wall have taken up large tracts of Bethlehem’s land. Beit Jala, a suburb of Bethlehem, had 22% of its land confiscated by Israel in 1967, and a further 45% will be lost for the construction of the wall. For Palestinians in the northern West Bank, it is almost impossible to reach Bethlehem, courtesy of another one of the occupation’s military rules that restricts the entry of civilians from the northern West Bank to its southern branch.
www.uruknet.de/?p=39537

Bethlehem’s struggles continue
Christian Porth, Aljazeera.net
A normally empty Manger Square was filled beyond capacity on Christmas day as thousands of Palestinians, dignitaries and foreigners descended on the little town of Bethlehem to welcome Michel Sabah the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. The Patriarch’s yearly visit was meant to kick off Christmas festivities but this year, as in others, the spirit of the festive season is uniquely intertwined with the fate of all Palestinians, who say the city has suffered from years of Israeli occupation. And like previous years, despite a boost in tourism, celebrations in Bethlehem have been marred by a poor economic and security situation….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39536